Omaha School Forms Stream
TeamStudents at Omaha High School
are forming a Stream Team to monitor Bear Creek this year
as a project of the math and science departments and a part
of their Omaha High School Water Quality Program, funded by
a grant from the South Shore Foundation at Flippin. From left
are advanced math and science teacher Donna Macri, Superintendent
David Land, and two Stream Team members, Jesse Courtney in
waders and Lacey LeBleu.

OMAHA,
Ark. – Students in this rural school near both Bull Shoals
Lake and sprawling Branson, Mo., have a new project that applies
science and math to monitoring the water quality in area streams.

Omaha School
has new scientific and computer equipment financed by a $20,546
grant from South Shore Foundation at Flippin, including gear like
rubber waders for venturing into the stream to take water samples.
Such financial help is available to the Omaha Public School because
it is within the telephone service area of NATCO, which set up the
South Shore Foundation five years ago. The foundation is now targeting
educational advancement and environmental preservation projects,
which are parts of their mission statement.

Donna Macri
and Brenda Blackmon are the teachers involved with turning some
high school science and math courses into an application-based environmental
program. In seeking the grant, Macri said, "We would like to
create the Omaha High School Water Quality Program...an integrated
cooperative learning experience for both science and math students."
The school is in its third year of a five-year plan to improve the
science and math education of Omaha students K-12, Macri said.

The grant covers
purchase of five personal computers, one laptop computer, a global
positioning system, an Arkansas Game & Fish lecture program
and instruction in field work, equipment such as waders, nets, specimen
jars, acid rain study kit, soil study kit, various identification
books for birds, plants, and insects, and other items.

Learning
Through DoingAmong the first students taking part in the new
Omaha High School Water Quality Program are: (from left
in background) Naomi Ellis and Crystal Cheek with science
teacher Brenda Blackmon, and (from left in foreground) Keshia
Koehn and Jessikah Mott with the new GPS system. To begin
the project, which includes updated computer equipment,
stream sampling gear, and classroom scientific kits for
an aqua-ponics system and a fish farm, the school received
a $20,546 grant from the South Shore Foundation.

The students
will make up a Stream Team under the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission’s
sponsorship. Stream Teams are volunteers who adopt a stream to monitor,
clean up litter, work on stabilization, or improve fish habitat.
It is a program of river, stream, and watershed conservation. Omaha
students plan to monitor Bear Creek near Point 34 of Bull Shoals
Lake. As students gather data to become part of the AG&FC database,
their work with the database requirements will provide math practice.
Science teachers said students could also study the local streams
as to their chemical, zoological and botanical features.

"We would
also like to instill an environmental conscience in our students
by allowing them to actually see and monitor the effects we have
on our natural resources," Macri said.

High school
classes taking part in the environmental program include environmental
and physical science, biology, algebra, advanced math, chemistry,
principles of technology, and physics.

"Students
learn and remember so much more anytime we can relate science and
math concepts to real life applications," said Macri. Additional
materials to be used in the classroom include an aqua-ponics system,
a fish farm, and an enviro-tank kit.

South Shore
Foundation is the charitable foundation of Northern Arkansas Telephone
Company of Flippin, which awards grants to nonprofit agencies and
communities to further the goals of educational advancement, environmental
preservation, community betterment and economic development. NATCO
President Steven G. Sanders also chairs the board of trustees of
the foundation. For more information or to receive a grant application,
call 1-800-775-6682.